Yorkville enquirer. [volume] (Yorkville, S.C.) 1855-2006, 1887-06-22
THE COST OF COTTON.

AA VIVA
Each section of the world has it's pecu-
liar product that is best adapted to it.
Ours is peculiarly adapted to cotton. 9th
er products grow and flourish, but none
suits it so we'll as cotton. 1t is our money
product, and should have especial atten-
ton. We need not fear over production.
The world needs all we can make. If we
don't make it some other section OF the
world will. Cotton at 10 cents is the
highest priced product in the world. What
we should learn to do is to make it with
the least possible cost. On well-drained
high lands short staple cotton should be
made at a cost of not more than 5 cents per
pound, and put on the market at that.
I said in the Cotton Plant some time ago
that 1 would make the experiment this
season with a one-horse pillow to see how
much and how cheap the staple could pos
the NeWs and Courier what said l intend
ed to do in the way of intensive farming,
and tell of the prospects at this time. I
will also report later, and will say that
this experiment is for the benefit Of the
public. I boosted in the Cotton Plant that
I would plant fifty acres to one mule, and
make fifty bales. This is my mode of in
tensive farming. I can now say that my
prospects are good for the fifty bales, each
to weigh 500 pounds. If 1 succeed, and |
think 1 will, and get ten cents per pound
l will put my cotton on the market at a
cost of less than three cents per pound,
which will make me at least 81 800 clear
profit.
Now if every plow that is run in the
South would make fifty bales, we would
soon root out the balance of the world and
have things our own way.
j. The climate of South Carolina is exactly
suited for the plant, neither too hot nor too
cool. 1t is less subject to disaster in every
respect than the rich bottoms OF the Mis-
sissippi, and if we make a bale to the acre
the crop is self-sustaining, (that is to say0
the seed when turned into meal will give
enough to f~ertilize the land and buy acid
phosphate to 60 with it, and have a little
left to ~fertilize corn.
My fifty acres are planted altogether dit.
ferent from the usual custom. Instead OF
planting on the bed I have planted in the
alley or water furrow, and instead of ploW-
ing dirt up hill 1 am throwing it down
hill, and l find it much easier to do. The
hoeing will be done for less than one dollar
per acre, and will stand any drought we
have ever had. Not a single root is ever
cut. It branches out long limbs near the
ground,
1 have been successful for two years in
succession on a ten acre plat, and l know
my fifty acres will succeed this time.
NV mode of cultivation is so different
from the usual way that I will not speak
of it now, but will venture to advise on
the old plan of planting IN the bed, and
my advice is opposite to David Dixon's.
He said plow with a fat-running sweep
and cultivate level, so as not to cut the
roots. Now that can't be done. If you
plant on a bed, I don't care how low it is,
and cultivate with a ~fiat-running Dixon
sweep, you are cutting the most Important
be invented that would do more harm.
My idea is to use a sweep just the oppo-
site, something on the style Of the old-time
barrel-head. | bought a dozen a few days
ago from c.. P. Poppeuheim, of Charleston.
He called it the Charleston sweep. 1t is
the best thing of the kind 1 have ever seen.
My plan is to plow the crop from the be-
ginning to end with the same size sweep.
You are then less subject to injure the lat
eral roots. Think Of it and try it. You
will find that your cotton will stand the
July and August droughts better than If
ploWed with the flat-running Dixon sweep.
TWenty-inch is the largest size to use. 1t
leaves u three and a half-foot row in good
shape, and that is the right distance to
plant cotton.
I spoke of my ffty-acre farm being on
the intensive system. Now I am intensi-
flying on a big mule that is worth as much
as two ordinary mules. I have also inten-
siied on a big negro that starts his pillow at
daybreak on Monday morning and ploWs
until dark, or as long as he can see, and
keeps it up until Saturday night. | am
not on the Furman intensive system, be-
cause 1 think it expensive and uncertain,
because high fertilizing is dangerous with
out perfect seasons all through the year.
think I will be able to putin a pea crop
and also an oat crop, that my mule will
,terkin, in Weekly News and Courier.